The Way You Are
by DuckDuckGoose096
Summary: She hated the rude git, he hated the stuck-up cow. Always enemies, yet somehow ended up with both Noah and Albus as their best friends, forcing the two to meet, and fight with, often. Until one day, there was a common goal that forced the two enemies that used to butt heads, to combine heads in an unlikely and reluctant alliance. Meanwhile, Noah is laughing his arse off at the two.
1. The Way Things Are

**AN: Classic love/hate Scorose that was just previously a whole lot of hate! I know there are millions out there, but I just wanted a crack at writing one. Let me have it xD**

 _Summary: She hated how rude he was. He hated how arrogant she was. Both were always enemies, a common goal and the other was always the obstacle. Until one day there was a common goal, and the two enemies butted heads- to become allies._

"Watch your head, Malfoy," she spat his surname as if it were soiled milk, "your freakish height may cause your head to slam against the doorframe, it may cause you to become even less intelligent.

She finished her insult with a triumphant smirk and a fold of her pale, freckle-coated arms.

"Oh Weasley," he started with an unimpressed eyeroll, "I hope your freakishly large head won't get stuck in a doorway, it may mean that your brain will be under too much pressure, not that it always isn't, as thinking for you must be _terribly_ difficult."

He finished his retort with a smug smirk, and a slump onto the train seats.

"Third bloody year I've put up with this shit," mumbled an unhappy mini carbon copy of Harry Potter himself.

"Not my fault you have bad taste in friends," the words flew from Rose's mouth in a heartbeat.

"You do realise, that you're also his friend," Scorpius quipped only milliseconds after Rose's comment.

"Y'know, actually the statement perfectly fits."

Rose scowled in response before slamming her back against the seat. Albus groaned.

"Sorry mate," Scorpius shrugged, "it's just the way things are."

"It's the way you are," grumbled Rose, face starting to form a slight red hue.

"Its the way YOU are, actually," Scorpius sent towards her with a large cheesy grin.

"It's the way YOU BOTH are, actually," Albus spoke, clearly mocking Scorpius.

"Are you done?" Asked a new voice.

A scrawny boy with neatly combed brunette hair cautiously entered the train compartment.

"I bloody hope so," Albus muttered as he slumped over.

For the past three years, conversations have usually been along these lines. It continued two more years, except in sixth year it slightly changed up, and Albus was ready to throttle Scorpius Malfoy.

"Now who's the one with a freakish height, not that I'm complaining too much about looking at those legs, Miss Weasley," were Scorpius' first words to the pair when the met on the train.

If Albus wasn't glaring because of those words, he was certainly sending daggers when he saw the lick of the lips and the wandering eyes.

"I'm certainly complaining about your stupid lanky appearance," Rose snorted as she took her seat on the train.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows.

"On the contrary, I receive many compliments on my well-sculpted physique," Scorpius then gestured to his body, for extra affect.

Which included the boiling blood of Albus Potter.

"Mate, you can't bloody fight with her for five bloody years and then flirt with her our sixth year back, she's my COUSIN and you HATE HER!"

Rose and Scorpius both cringed in obvious disgust. Albus swore that both of them even adopted a lime green colour to their faces.

"What's this about Rose and Scorpius flirting?" Piped up the voice of the always late addition.

"I did not flirt with her!" "I was not flirting with THAT THING!"

Their friend just simply chuckled. At Albus. At Rose. At Scorpius.

"I know, however I don't know why Albus would make such a ludicrous accusation," he stated, still chuckling at the trio's expense, as he took his seat next to Rose.

"Always a grand entrance Noah," Scorpius said to him.

"As always, Scorp," Noah laughed.

Rose just rolled her eyes at the boys.

"I really need some friends that are female," she sighed.

"You just friends, period," Scorpius immediately shot.

Rose instantly set her blazing brown eyes at the Malfoy boy.

"I do have friends," she squawked, "which is more than what you can say!"

Noah laughed, again. Albus groaned, again. Scorpius glared, again. Rose returned said glare, again.

"Albus lighten up a bit mate," Noah suggested.

"It used to be funny, but it gets old," Albus whined.

"Still is."

Albus shot him a look, that clearly showed a heavy, "Really? Are you sure? Damn sure of that?"

"Weasley's face is always funny."

And Rose once again rounded on him, firing an insult in response. Albus counted the hours they would be at Hogwarts. Noah counted how many times they battled of words, and who one which quarrel. After a while the foursome played the usual Hogwarts train games. There was Exploding Snap, and the muggle game UNO that Scorpius, despite all Malfoy history, had an addiction to. There was also the games of gobstones, mini chess tournament, and ending with more Exploding Snap and UNO.

"Well we best get changed into our dress robes," Rose said as she stood up, dusting invisible dirt off of her pants.

"Right here and now Weasley? Not that I'm complaining to see such a show but-"

"In the girls' bathroom you bloody twat," Rose seethed.

Albus internally reminded himself to keep taking deep breaths. Noah for once, did not laugh, but instead was staring at Scorpius, with widened eyes and a comically agape mouth that near slammed the floor when Scorpius made his comment. Rose collected her clothing and stormed out of the compartment with a grumpy humph. Scorpius gave a light chuckle as she slammed the door shut.

After a few moments of silence, Noah decided to cut through with a disturbing question.

"When the fuck did you start fancying Rose Weasley?"

Both Albus and Scorpius rounded on him with red faces and angry yelling.

"I would never fancy that beast!"

"She's my COUSIN"

"I mean she's not even THAT attractive!"

"They've hated each other Noah! Always!"

"She's so BLOODY arrogant!"

"Why would you even think that!"

"Not to mention BLOODY annoying!"

"Why would you say that!"

"Always talking and rambling!"

Noah darted his eyes back and forth between his two shouting friends.

"Rose would never like him back anyway," Albus finished.

"I beg to differ," Scorpius replied.

"Agreed," Noah chipped in.

Scorpius and Albus gave him curious, and mildly disgusted looks.

"Just saying, by Hogwarts graduation, Albus and I will be catching you guys in a hallway one day snogging the everliving daylights out of each other," Noah shrugged, as if he just commented that the weather was slightly cloudy.

Scorpius gave an exaggerated shudder while Albus swayed, looking like he was going to vomit at any given moment. Noah smirked as he leaned back.

"Ten galleons Al, that your cousin and best mate will be snogging by graduation."

Albus sighed and rubbed his temples. All was silent for a few moments.

"Ten galleons, that Scorpius will declare his love shortly before the Christmas holidays next year."

"Excuse me!" Scorpius roared in anger.

Albus gave a low, dark laugh.

"If you two fall in love, which I hope not, it will be bloody hilarious."

Scorpius cringed. Noah burst out in an almost deranged laughter.

"As if he'll say it first, c'mon mate, Rose will probably scream it at the poor bloke," said Noah.

Albus grinned as he took a look at poor Scorpius. He was currently shaking his head, paler than usual, and looking sick.

"I thought you didn't like the idea of Rose and I," Scorpius groaned.

"I like it better than you guys arguing," Albus snorted.

"You realised that all of the sudden though, seriously what got into you?" Noah asked.

Albus sighed and gave a shrug.

"Dunno, maybe just for humours' sake, but the more I think about it, I think it could actually work," Albus responded solemnly.

"Both of you are fucking mental. I should put you into Saint Mungo's for this shit!"

"Hush now, Rose-lover, let the big boys talk."

And so slowly, Albus stopped cringing at the thought of Rose and Scorpius, and enjoyed teasing the poor blonde about it. Noah could still see though, that Albus still didn't enjoy the idea, he never did when it came to his cousins, or worse, his sister, when it came to dating. Scorpius shot the whole idea down altogether, even adding into the bet that he bets Rose and he will never develop romantic feelings for one another. When Rose made her way back into the compartment, all mouths clamped shut, and the boys put in minimal conversation for the remaining few minutes of the journey.

Scorpius was damned sure that he was receiving fifteen galleons. Him and Rose dating? Please.

That's just not the way things were.

 **AN: A bet on their relationship, so not cliched right? Yes, I'm a horrible person but I just had to write one in. Also, I would love some constructive criticism on this, or any other tips and tricks that would help.**


	2. The Way Scorpius Notices

**AN:** **I was thinking about a few things I did in chapter one which I probably shouldn't have done, such as the bet and albus all-of-the-sudden switched moods and Scorpius' comments, I felt as if I should've left that for development, but I needed some sort of starting point and I wasn't too sure how to get the ball rolling, but ah well, I guess I just have to continue building the other side of the bridge.**

The start of Sixth Year was like every other, watching a bunch of First Years being sorted, and having the four friends sit at their house table- Slytherin.

"Finally, I year I won't see a glaring match between Large Potter and Regular Potter from across The Great Hall, all the stare I need is from my sexy love-of-the-night," Noah said before taking a large bite out of a drumstick.

Rose rolled her eyes, "I still get looks from Hugo y'know," she pointed out as her brother, Hugo Weasley, was indeed shooting her various funny faces.

"Nobody cares, Weasley," Scorpius instantly piped as he shovelled mashed potato onto his fork.

Noah smirked as his eyes flickered between the pair.

"What?" Rose hissed as her eyes narrowed at Noah.

"Oh nothing," he sang back.

"You don't wanna know, Rose," Albus sighed before tucking into his overflowing plate of food.

Rose scrunched her nose, "the lot of you eat as if you're all homeless and never going to eat again."

Scorpius gave a mock indignant huff in response, before giving Rose a pout.

"Weasley, stop hurting my feelings."

He was met with a cold glare as Rose's attention soon turned to her own plate of food.

"Don't you pretend I've never been to a Weasley Family Dinner either, you could give us a run of our money, with all of our food combined."

Rose slammed her fork down on the table and locked her blazing brown eyes with the twinkling grey of Scorpius'.

Albus rubbed his temples, muttering something along the lines of "stupid" and "regret." Meanwhile, Noah watched the debacle with a cheshire grin plastered across his face. Scorpius then had a smirk starting to make its way across his lips and he leaned across the table, and muttered something to Rose. This comment was either highly inappropriate, rude or in someway heavily uncalled for, because after a few seconds of Rose imitating a goldfish, she gave Scorpius a hard backhanding across his face.

"Go rot in hell, you fucking prick," she spat before standing up abruptly and storming out of the hall.

"I can't wait for the two of you to give me fifteen galleons," Scorpius snorted, slumping his shoulders in a more relaxed posture.

"What the hell did you even say?" Noah asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Did the one thing you never should with girls, comment on their body and make slight implications on their weight," Scorpius answered nonchalantly.

"You did NOT call her fat?"

"I'm not THAT stupid Noah, I just inferred that I noticed that her frame just held more curves," Scorpius stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Albus sent him a glare. Noah rolled his eyes.

"One of your faces is going to remain stuck one day, and I shall not be the one casting multiple spells to try and unfreeze them."

That was the last comment Scorpius made before he left the table.

"Bloody prat," Noah chuckled.

Albus scoffed, before wolfing down some more potatoes. Noah smiled at the Potter boy and gave a chuckle. Scorpius, now smirking, took that as his cue to finally leave The Great Hall. One thing Scorpius learned through his years at Hogwarts, that Slytherin's were not only ambitious and calculating, but they were subtle. Another thing he learned, is not to underestimate Noah Macdougal.

It was Scorpius' turn to have a chuckle. However, he also had to go check on Weasley, and ask for a favour. Merlin, he was not looking forward to this. When he reached the common room, he found his target sitting by the fire, with, gasp, a book clutched in her scrawny pale hands.

"Nose in another book I see," Scorpius said as he plomped down next to her.

Rose's glare was emphasised by the reflection of the roaring fire that danced in her brown eyes.

"Still offended by dinner, I see?"

Rose let out a snarl and let her eyes focus back down on her book. The common room was, surprisingly, empty. There was nobody lounging on the dark leather couch, nobody sparing in a game of wizard's chess, and nobody occupying the wooden tables in the darkly lit room.

"How do you even read in such poor lighting conditions anyway?"

"Even the cavemen figured out that fire makes light, Scorpius," Rose growled, her fingers turning white from clutching her book tightly.

"Cavemen also figured out that fire burns, and here you are with a tasty book as an offering," Scorpius retorted, leaning towards her slightly.

"Unlike you, my intelligence is not at the low level of a neanderthal such as yourself."

"You're right," Scorpius said, adopting a teasing smirk, "it's somehow even _less"_

Rose slammed her book shut and climbed to her feet. Scorpius quickly scrambled too, and grabbed her shoulders.

"I actually came in here for a serious conversation-"

"Could've fooled me-"

"Just shut your bloody mouth for one second," Scorpius seethed as his grip tightened.

Rose gave both a wince and a sneer at the same time. Scorpius still wasn't sure how she managed to pull that off.

"Like anything you have to say is serious," Rose scoffed as she tried to wiggle out of this uncomfortable situation.

"It's about Noah and Albus."

Rose froze immediately before narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"What about them?" She spoke in a low voice.

"You've seen it too then?"

"The way Noah fancies Albus, or the way Albus seems to interested looking at FEMALES."

Scorpius laughed. Not chuckled, an actual tickle of laughter.

"Malfoy," Rose growled.

"Is there even a brain underneath this weird birds nest on fire that currently resides on your pale freckles small head?"

"You're pale too, bastard."

"I was not born out of wedlock-"

"You get the idea though. Prick."

"My point is, I'm sure Al's bat beats for both teams."

Rose's eyes can't possibly narrow any further.

"And HOW have you come to this conclusion."

"Because it's more than skirts that the pervert keeps his eyes glued to," Scorpius finished with a sly smirk.

"Why must all Slytherins give that fucking smirk," Rose sighed as she finally was released from Scorpius' grip.

"You're a Slytherin too, Weasley," Scorpius teased.

This earned him another glare.

"I know that you fucking prat," Rose spat, "I actually remember my sorting."

"Bloody hell it took it's time," Scorpius snorted.

"This isn't about that," Rose's tone changed, "this is how you think my cousin and our best friend have romantic feelings."

"Noah has. Al doesn't seem to reciprocate," Scorpius shrugged before smirking.

It sent a shiver through Rose's spine. That smirk usually delivered something that would cause Rose to act with fear, violence, insanity or all of the above.

"What are you planning?" She asked him in a tone that almost sounded threatening.

"To make sure our two best friends live a happily ever after," Scorpius replied, as if someone died and made him a fairygodfather.

Rose gave him a deadpanned look. Her arms folded and her eyes pierced right into his.

"You're shitting me."

"Think of this as a bit of revenge, but one in which they're happy," Scorpius then frowned at his own logic as Rose facepalmed.

"Goodnight, Malfoy," were her final words before finally trotting off to get some slumber.

"Toil and Trouble," Scorpius faintly heard.

It was followed by the rumble of the stone wall parting, revealing the short passageway to the Slytherin common room.

"Bloody hell, Noah, do you really want all of Hogwart's to know the Slytherin password?" Albus scolded as the pair entered.

"Well hello, you two are awfully late," Scorpius teased with a more playful smirk.

 _'How many different ways can one possibly fucking smirk?"_

Quote from Rose Jean Weasley, fourth year after Scorpius "accidentally" spilled a plate of eggs all over her. She got her revenge though, after the eggs _somehow_ ended up in his sheets, on his sheets, in his pillowcases and on the pillows themselves. Not to mention all of his robes were drenched in sauce.

"We actually like our dessert," Noah pretended to give a girly huff as he stormed to the dorm room.

"Why are you still in here anyway?" Albus questioned.

"Bonding time with dear Rosie," Scorpius grinned.

"It's been six years Scorp, what is stopping a friendship?"

Scorpius frowned, "thought it was obvious."

"Enlighten me," Albus sighed.

"She's a pain. She won't shut up. She's stuck up. She fucking acts like she owns the three of us. Thinks she so bloody smart, and her bloody hair isn't natural it's obviously a beast that needs to be executed."

"Forget I asked," Albus sighed, again.

"Goodnight."

"Okay mate, goodnight."


	3. The Way Rose Sort Of Accepts

**AN: Welcome back guys. Third chapter here we go...**

No matter what Rose said to him last week, Scorpius was damn certain that his two male best friends had feelings for each other. It was times like this he wished he didn't have Slytherins for best mates, as both of them kept all signs and signals small and subtle, tactfully making sure the other did not see or suspect a thing. This became rather frustrating, as it also meant that Rose did not see the hidden hints either.

"Will you stop staring," Rose hissed, elbowing Scorpius during Potions.

About five minutes ago Scorpius caused a lot of near heart-attacks. When the professor had asked students to get in the pairs, Scorpius linked arms with Rose and declared that he had dibs on the Weasley. Rose shot him a menacing look and struggled to pry her arm out of his lock. Noah was smiling like a child at Christmas, and Albus looked a mixture between confused, happily surprised, and wanted to hex Scorpius as far away from Rose as possible.

"Oh just leave them be," Noah laughed as he put his arm around Albus' shoulder.

"Just a friendly gesture I suppose," Albus sighed in response.

"Sure," Noah snorted, watching Scorpius smile as Rose was still squirming and trying her damned best to escape.

"Hey Weasley, about my theory. Our dear friend Noah has his arm around a comfortable looking Albus," Scorpius said to Rose, who was still struggling.

"Are you going to bloody let me go," she grumbled as she glanced towards Noah and Albus.

They were in a normal conversation, looking at a potions textbook in front of them. Albus had not yet shrugged off Noah's arm.

"I'm telling you Weasley, Al likes it in the ass."

Rose, now out of grip, took this moment to slam her textbook in Scorpius face.

"Bloody wonderful, now there's your blood on it," she sighed in frustration before whipping out her wand.

"Bloody fucking hell Weasley!" Scorpius shouted, clutching his bleeding nose.

"Weasley! Ten points from Slytherin!"

Rose folded her arms and huffed, Scorpius glaring at her over the hand still clutching his bleeding nose.

"Another ten points off for Malfoys foul language," she added as she stormed over to the pair.

She narrowed her beady blue eyes at them before examining Scorpius' injury.

"You did quite a number, might be broken," she muttered as she gently pulled of Scorpius' hand.

"Bloody hell-"

"Do not make me remove further points, Mr Malfoy."

"Weasley, without inflicting further damage, take Malfoy to the hospital wing. You both will return here tonight for detention," Professor Aurora stated.

"What did I do?" Scorpius asked, rather annoyed.

"Profanity is not tolerable in my classrooms, and I'm sure Miss Weasley had a reason for giving you this," Professor Aurora answered, gesturing to the bleeding nose.

Scorpius gave a frustrated sigh as he stomped out the door.

"Follow him, Miss Weasley. Remember: no further harm."

Rose was trudging behind Scorpius, who was grumbling expletives as he still clutched his nose, and Rose was grumbling a sailor's storm herself.

"If you weren't such a prat we wouldn't be having detention tonight-"

"Bullshit Weasley! Maybe if you weren't a violent cow!" Scorpius shouted back.

"Language!" Called a professor from a classroom they passed.

The rest of the walk to the hospital wing was silent, apart from their shoes that thumped loudly against the floor. Finally the pair were able to pass through the doors to the hospital room. On this rare occasion there was not a student occupying the beds that were laid out in two neat rows. The school's matron, Madam Rey, sat at a desk reading over some parchment, muttering to herself as she did so.

"Hello Madam Rey," Rose greeted before finding a wall to lean against.

"Mr Malfoy, Miss Weasley," responded Madam Rey with a happy smile.

She was rather young, looking almost straight out of training, her honey blonde hair was pulled into a tight bun, and her dark blue eyes were framed with thin grey glasses.

"Weasley here decided that my nose needed to meet a textbook," Scorpius informed her before planting himself on a bed.

Matron Rey gave a sigh and a disapproving look towards Rose, who just looked at the floor with sudden interest. She walked over to Scorpius and examined his nose.

"Just a broken nose, no harm done," she stated pulling her wand out of her sleeve.

"No harm done?" Scorpius repeated, bewildered.

"Yes, Malfoy," Rose said to him with an eye roll.

"The psycho broke my nose!"

Madam Rey chuckled as she steadily gripped her wand. With a swish and a wave of her wand, Scorpius' nose was cleaned. After a tiny twirl a small _'crack'_ sounded.

"There," Madam Rey smiled as she folded her arms and admired her handiwork.

"Thank you," Scorpius exhaled as he slid off the bed. He wiggled his nose around for a bit, and gave it a few scrunches.

"Is there going to be a time where two won't have to be in this hospital because of eachother?" Madam Rey laughed at them.

Both shrugged at her comment.

"Well, off to class, and try to be less violent."

"Yeah Weasley," Scorpius mocked as the two made their way to the door.

"Try being less of a prat Malfoy, then I'll consider your offer," Rose responded to him as she steadied herself without the wall.

Madam Rey tried to conceal her giggles and her smile as she watched the pair exit.

* * *

The detention could have gone worse. Professor Aurora sat at her desk scribbling on multiple pieces of parchment, every now and then her tongue would flick across her lips and her eyes would narrow, at other times she'd mumble praise to herself. The room was much darker than it was in the day time, and it felt very lonely being the only two students occupying the space. Rose and Scorpius had minimal communication, there was only the checking on what step the other was doing, and double checking some procedures. On the more brighter side of things, the potion was coming along splendidly.

"Weasley have you grinded the lacefly wings with the spider eyes?"

"Yes, right here."

"Keep up the communication," Professor Aurora called out as she scribbled down yet another note.

"She's grading us as we go, which is easier when there is only one pairing," Scorpius whispered to Rose as he plopped the lacefly wings and spider eyes into the bubbling cauldron.

"No shit," Rose scoffed as she began finely chopping batwings.

Scorpius just gave a frustrated sigh as he stirred in his latest ingredient additions.

"So about Albus and Noah-"

"Not this again Malfoy," Rose groaned.

"Hear me out," Scorpius continued, "you saw Noah and Albus in Potions today, there is something."

"I didn't see much, we went to the Hospital Wing remember," Rose reminded him as she finished up on the bats.

"And whose fault was that?" Scorpius deadpanned as he shot a look at Rose.

Her only reaction was a red blush that seeped down to her neck.

"That's what I thought."

Rose sighed as she put down the knife.

"Even if there was, well, something between the two. Can you imagine if two friends, very close friends, who've been friends for a long time-"

"Cut to the point, Weasley," Scorpius urged.

"Can you imagine the consequences of a bad break up? We'd be forced to choose sides," Rose finished.

Scorpius pondered this for a moment.

"That's good, I may not have to talk to you as much if they break up."

Rose shot him a glare.

"You're a bloody prat, you know?"

"You tell me every day," Scorpius laughed.

He stopped stirring the potion and he had a look inside.

"Nice colour, glossy, consistency is thick yet still glides of the spoon with ease," he noted.

Rose peered over, and gave a nod in agreement.

"Professor Aurora, we're finished," Rose called out to her.

The Professor hopped out of her seat and adjusted her black glasses before speedily making her way over. She was muttering inaudibly under her breath, and gave constant nods.

"Not very surprising, considering it's you two, but it's indeed O worthy."

"Yes!" Both Rose and Scorpius exclaimed before a high five.

"Although I wish for you two to return to Albus and Noah, they were both really distracted today while they made their potion," Professor Aurora said to them with a sly smile.

Scorpius and Rose locked eyes, both hoping to send a telepathic message along the same lines.

 _'Well that's almost confirmed the lot.'_

"Right, off to your dormatories before it gets passed curfew," Professor Aurora chirped.

"Goodnight Professor."

"Goodnight Ma'am."

* * *

Scorpius was swaggering all the way to the common room entrance like a cocky male bird, chest and feathers puffed out and the lot.

"I was right," he sang repeatedly along their journey.

"I'm going to break your ugly nose again if you keep saying that," Rose was repeatedly threaten.

"Any plans of action Malfoy?" She asked to break the chain.

"What do you mean?"

"Now that it's near confirmed-"

" _Definitely_ confirmed-" Scorpius confirmed.

"That Noah and Albus have romantic feelings for each other, surely you must have a plan of action," Rose finished, ignoring his interruption.

Scorpius gave her a wicked smirk as his only response. Rose gave a defeated sigh.

"I have to be in this, don't I?"

The smirk remained.

"What the fuck am I getting myself into, Malfoy?"


	4. The Way of Subtlety

**AN: So I last updated October 2015, and here I am now with the next chapter…oops. I am very sorry though, and I have been busy with my Year 12 Graduation and then starting University two months later. Thank you to my 10 follows and for my awesome reviewer 'Bad Ass Blye' for giving me nice fuzzy feelings whenever I read the review**

With the way Albus and Noah were reacting, you would've thought that Rose told them that the world will be ending in less than 2 hours.

"Honestly, he's just sitting next to me at breakfast this morning, what is your deal?" Rose asked them as she poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice.

"You're okay with it!" Albus shrieked, his hands clutching at the roots of his messy black hair.

"And you're defending the matter and making it look normal!" Noah added, with widened eyes and waggling his finger in an accusatory manner.

Rose rolled her eyes before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"And exactly what about it isn't normal?" She enquired.

"Are you shitting me?" Noah laughed hysterically, looking ready to be checked in to the mental ward of St Mungo's.

Scorpius brow furrowed in deep concern for his friends, who were both rocking backwards and forwards on the cliff of insanity.

"I know it's highly unusual for me to be near the fucktard without hexing him, but he hasn't given me a reason to," while pausing, she narrowed her eyes at the blonde next to her, "yet."

Scorpius snorted, before commenting.

"I decided to keep to myself this morning, it's too early in the morning to put up with whatever shit spills out from your mouth, tell me, does your ass get jealous?" This statement was concluded with a mocking smile, of course.

Albus and Noah both sighed before tucking into their breakfasts.

"Not as jealous as your ass for not looking nearly as good," Rose humphed.

"Tsk tsk, the sheer arrogance of that poor excuse for a rebuttal," Scorpius then sighed in ironic pity.

"I believe some asshat once told me 'it's not arrogance if it's true,' whilst quoting this said person, she made an ugly face and twisted her tone in "herr derr" fashion.

"But it isn't true, while your ass is certainly a nice one to look at, it clearly is not as good as mine."

Albus almost spat out the bacon he had been previously chewing on, beside him, Noah was grinning like a five year old.

"Thank you Malfoy, for the compliment," was Rose's final words before being interrupted.

"How's my dearest little boat?" Came a giggle.

Noah groaned, instantly rubbing his face both hands.

"Naw don't give me that, what sort of older sister would I be if I didn't check up on you?" And so she sat down.

It was obvious she was Noah's sister, the same caramel skin and chocolate eyes that burned a warm, fiery orange near the pupil.

"Only older by five minutes," Noah hissed before finally deciding to make eye contact with her.

"I have a letter from mother," she ignored his comment and proceeded to wave the opened envelope around.

"Why in the name of merlin's balls is Noah a boat?"

"Muggle religion story, Noah was a character that built a giant arch to-"

"Okay nerdling you can shut up now," Scorpius cut in.

Noah's twin sister cackled and reeled her body backwards. The four friends all turned their heads to each other, their faces reading an obvious message: This chick is bloody mental.

"Easiest way to get a bird to shut her trap is to snog her," Noah's twin finished with a deep chuckle.

Albus shuddered, Rose physically gagged and Scorpius responded in a verbal manner.

"Will it work with you, Claudia?"

This time, it was Albus' turn to laugh and Noah's face contorted in a fashion that would make an outsider believe that he just finished a thriller movie marathon. His sister merely smirked in the typical slytherinistic manner.

"Back to the letter, Claudia" Rose injected with a small growl.

With her smirk replaced with a smile, she took the slip of parchment out of the envelope. After a clearing of her throat, she read out the letter.

' _For our son Noah and daughter Claudia,_

 _We hope the New Year is going well for the both of you. Noah we hope that the fuss stops after last years, how should it be put, announcement. We still accept you._

 _Claudia, we hope things with Tiff will settle, but remember that females are vicious. In the meantime smile and carry on._

 _Sixth and Seventh are the most important years of your education, we hope that you both are hard at work at your studies and Quidditch._

 _The dogs miss you, as always, and so do we._

 _Love,_

 _Mum and Dad.'_

Noah frowned, "why do the letters for both of us only ever get sent to you."

"Dunno," Claudia shrugged.

"Well what was so important that the letter was urgent," Rose snapped.

"Nothing, you just assume too much, dear Rose," Claudia responded cooly.

Claudia let the conversation sit at that, before strutting off to her small gaggle of giggling girls.

"Why don't you have a group of attractive female friends we can hit on?" Scorpius asked Rose with a pout.

Noah coughed, a single and very loud cough.

"With a gay guy thrown in there for Noah," Scorpius added with an enthusiastic point of his index finger.

"Not the best display of subtlety, Noah," Rose laughed before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"I could say the same to you too, Rose," Noah returned a low quiet tone, and Rose did not like the evil glint in his eyes.

"Scorpius is the one who offered to snog your sister," Rose snorted into her cup.

"In your face!" Albus yelled in Noah's face, who groaned and threw his neck back.

"I wasn't going to, Claudia's good looking at all but," Scorpius paused, slightly unsure of his direction, "I dunno, she just doesn't really do it for me."

Albus scoffed and bitterly mumbled something under his breathe.

"I won't snog _her_ either, Albus Severus," Scorpius growled.

"Well!" Rose broke out and stood up abruptly, "as much as I love hearing about you boys and who is snoggable material or and who is not, I have study to do, so please continue _after_ I am out of ear shot."

After that, she quickly picked up her satchel and scuttled out of the Great Hall, dodging and weaving between the half-dead zombies and the too-chirpy birds.

Rose Weasley's time of peace came to an unfortunate end by the arrival of a certain pure-blood wizard.

"Very subtle exit, Weasley," Scorpius snorted as he sauntered over.

Her only response was a crisp cold glare before returning to her textbook and parchment.

"Just saying, secret planning needs some," Scorpius pulled the chair out and slumped on it rather ungracefully, "finesse."

Rose snorted, her eyes still scanning the pages of the textbook in front of her. Scorpius sighed in frustration, his hand scrunching into his blonde hair, muttering to himself.

"Apparently your plan of our new seating arrangement was not very," Rose adopted a sickly sweet smile, "subtle," with an extra dose of mocking and venom, "and _finesse_."

"Yet they do not suspect that we plan to meddle in their lives, so it's still an overall victory," Scorpius shrugged, letting his chair rock back so it was merely balancing on the back two legs.

"Victory is _much_ too strong of a word-"

"You are taking this far too seriously," Scorpius laughed, putting his hands behind his head.

"If I am about to manipulate and meddle in my cousin's and best friend's personal lives, I want no errors that will regurgitate in my face," Rose finally lifted her eyes from the textbook to give a stony look at Scorpius.

"Fair enough," another shrug from Scorpius.

Rose swore under her breath, before once again letting her eyes make acquaintance with the text book.

"Anyone would think you were in Ravenclaw-"

"May you either please talk about the Noah and Albus situation, or bugger off and leave me be," Rose once again lifted her gaze from the textbook to make eye-contact with the source of her bad mood.

He had the gall to just smirk back.

"Well we could go through all the clichés," Scorpius suggested, placing all four legs of the chair on the ground again.

Rose raised her eyebrow in response.

"There's the locking in a broom cupboard-"

"Doesn't work on everyone," Rose snorted.

Scorpius chuckled at the memory.

" _And you will stay in there until you can talk without fighting!" Albus finished yelling at the locked broom closet._

" _ABLUS SEVERUS POTTER!" Rose shrieked._

 _The next thirty seconds consisted of Rose attacking the broom closet draw with the ferocity of an angered lioness._

" _Told you this is what would happened," Noah drawled, looking rather bored with the situation._

Rose scrunched her nose with an ugly scowl.

"Maybe they wouldn't bang on the cupboard, but _in_ the cupboard," Scorpius commented with a sly wiggle of his eyebrows.

Rose merely shot him a look staler than month old bread.

"Merlin, Weasley, do you have any suggestions?"

"The only thing that won't backfire is just to leave the two alone as much as possible, but that could cause suspicion as to where _we_ are," Rose answered after a few moments.

"Could work in our favour," Scorpius said to her, "after all, with the suspicion, they could react with going all weird and mission-mode, further providing encouragement to the two being alone."

"A common goal forcing an increased amount of time spent with each other," Rose sounded as if she was finally nearly finished with her grand puzzle.

"Exactly," Scorpius' smirk, if possible, grew, and Rose didn't like the twinkle in his eyes.

"Malfoy," she frowned, "isn't that what we're doing? Having a common goal forcing us to-"

"We're not two idiots who fancy each other and are oblivious to the other," Scorpius snorted, "instead we are two intelligent individuals who can't stand each other."

Rose bit her lip, pondering this comment for a few seconds.

"I see why you're worried about falling for me Weasley-"

"Oh please," Rose chortled, "you haven't had a romantic or physical partner since the early weeks of fifth year."

"I have a reputation to keep as a gentleman," Scorpius defended.

"You don't have one."

 **AN: That foreshadowing though…**


	5. The Way of Quidditch

**AN: Once I uploaded Chapter 4 I was getting antsy about writing again… goodbye GPA…hello fanfiction. Most of this chapter is the try-outs, however I did drop in some key quotes and a new character we will hear about a little more often.**

"You are the worst at being a Wealsey," Scorpius scoffed as he stretched his arms across his body.

"My dislike of flying on an over-glorified cleaning utensil does not mean I am the worst at, how you put, 'at being a Weasley,'" Rose responded with an eyeroll.

"And here you two are, ruining a lovely morning," Albus grumbled, also stretching his arms.

The morning had a lovely crispy coldness in the air, it was rather cloudy, but not to the point where the ground was cast with complete darkness, just a smidge. The grass was dewy and there was something about quidditch that just made this morning all the more special.

"Think we'll make the team?" Albus asked with a smug smirk.

"Of course," Scorpius replied, equally smug.

"Ready to sit by, bored out of our minds Rose?" Noah's tone was drier than burnt toast.

"I can think of worse things to do, but not many," Rose sighed, turning to look at Noah.

Scorpius and Albus chatted excitedly as they stretched on the Quidditch Pitch, anticipating the moment the clock struck 10, anticipating owning the skies, anticipating the magical news that they were on the team.

"Alrighty, all those interested in try-outs, come on over," the Slytherin Captain bellowed out.

Albus and Scorpius gripped their brooms tight, and swaggered on over to where others were joining.

"To the stands we go," Noah sighed as he looked over at Rose, whose eyes seemed fixated on something.

Noah chuckled and gripped the back of her shirt as he walked over.

"Alibrandi!" Rose growled as she slapped his arm.

"Resorting to using my last name? Who am I, Scorpius?"

"Wanker," Rose hissed.

"I can't be Scorpius, you weren't staring at me-"

"Bugger off," Rose shoved him.

"Remind me again why you're in Slytherin, and not Gryffindor?" Noah laughed as the two climbed up the stairs.

"I don't know," Rose sighed, "The Sorting Hat just said I'd be greater, I was both uneasy and rather happy at the opportunity to achieve more, and he just went 'well then, my choice has been made clear.'"

"I was going to be a Ravenclaw, but then me mentioned something about my laziness and selfishness," Noah told her.

"I never knew that," Rose replied with a small voice.

"Hence why I told you."

Rose sighed once she sat down, looking at onto the field.

"Are you staring at-"

"It's unfair to be that pretty," Rose frowned, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms over.

Noah quirked at eyebrow at her.

"Zabini?"

It was Rose's turn to cock a brow.

"I'm gay Weasley, not blind. You don't see me pointing a finger at you because you identify as straight, yet here you are, identifying key attractive features of a woman," Noah drawled.

"Perfect stupid body," Rose grumbled.

"She's the _Quidditch Captain,_ meaning she's athletic-"

"Her complexion is flawless! It's like perfect melted chocolate!"

"There's this thing called _genes-"_

"Is it even human to have your hair so straight yet so full of volume!" Rose squawked, gesturing wildly to the said Quidditch Captain.

"Yes, we get it, Paisley Zabini is a Goddess, I hear this enough from other males," Noah rolled his eyes.

Neither were wrong, out of the 15 people trying out for a spot on the Quidditch team, more than half were currently ogling the Captain who was trying to convey what would go down in the trials.

"Not fair," Rose grumbled, grabbing a fistful of her unruly ginger locks and glaring at them.

"Mad at you guys too," she added, glaring at the abundance of freckles on her exposed shoulders.

Noah's breathing increased in density, trying to assure himself he will live after sitting next to this crazy female. When the so-called Goddess Paisley Zabini blew her whistle, 6 people, one of whom was Albus, instantly kicked off in the air. Paisley bent down beside her, were an aging brown chest sat, she flicked open the locks and opened up the top and grabbed out the familiar leather ball, the quaffle.

"Reminding you again, Potter, Yin and Khan are Group 1, Farley, Nott and Gamp are Group 2! This drill will go for 15 minutes! I have had a counter charmed to count the amount of quaffle passes and intercepts! At about the 7 minute mark I will release the beaters!"

Rose shuddered.

"He'll be fine," Noah told her.

Paisley blew her whistle again and threw the quaffle in the air, Albus zoomed in at incredible speed, his body collided with Nott's, which allowed teammate Yin to swoop in and capture the quaffle. Rose's eyes somehow managed to keep up with it all, and disapproved of the amount of bashings her cousin received.

"If you can't get to it first, beating it out of an opponent's hands is the best way to go about it," Noah mused, his eyes fixated on the ordeal.

"You've never been this interested in Quidditch, Noah," Rose noted with an oh-so-sweet tone.

"If I were you Rose, I would leave your comments at that," Noah warned, his eyes did not stray from the Quidditch Pitch.

"I'm just saying," Rose furthered, "up until now, even this morning, you droned about how _useless_ and _boring_ it was-"

"I'm surprised to find out that you have been observing me, don't even try and weasel out, I've seen many occasions where your eyes are glued to something or should I say someone whose name is-"

"You're delusional," Rose snorted, "as if I would give him any look along those lines."

Noah opened his mouth to speak, but Paisley blew the whistle and the four slytherins who were trying out as beaters lifted into the skies.

"Time to really test who is alongside me as a Chaser!" Paisley roared as she released the bludger.

It burst into the air, immediately Zacharias Goyle zipped over, and smacked the bludger towards the now scattering chasers. Except for Albus Potter, who decided that catching the quaffle was more important than being hit by a bludger. As Albus sharply turned his broom for a getaway the bludger thwacked into his shoulder, Albus didn't fumble the quaffle, the hit only made him grip it all the more tighter. Scorpius whooped from below as Paisley smiled. Albus took off towards his teammates and chucked the ball to Kuan Yin, who as soon as he caught it, was smashed into by Nott. Luckily, when the quaffle fell from Yin's grasp Khan was able to intercept it in mid-air, leaving Farley to mutter a few inappropriate words under his breath. When thrown to Albus, he caught it and made a sharp dive before Nott, the body-slamming seeker missile., was able to collide with his target.

"Sometimes I forget how talented Albus is," Noah commented.

"It's in his DNA, Aunt Ginny was a chaser for the Harpies, Uncle Harry the youngest seeker in the century, and his grandfather, James Potter, was a chaser and quidditch captain," Rose told him.

"I know," Noah replied, watching Albus fly around.

Paisley blew the whistle.

"Game over! Group 1, leading by a large portion, had the most passes and the largest consecutive passes!" She declared with a large grin.

Rose and Noah clapped from the stands, Scorpius cheered loudly, even getting so excited to jump on Albus before he even reached the ground. Paisley then hurriedly scribbled down some notes on a parchment that was previously lying beside the trunk of quidditch supplies.

"Now, let's test out some Keepers," Paisley stated as she looked up from her parchment.

"Now, there are 15 people at tryouts today, so, including myself, that's a total of 16 people, and I'm splitting us up into 2 teams," Paisley said to them.

"Ummm… Miss Captain… how-"

"There will just be more chasers than what is in a proper quidditch match," Paisley interrupted, "my seekers for the moment will just have to be patient and throw a quaffle around for a bit. It will worry me if a seeker can't catch a large leather ball, when their job is to chase after a nearly impossible speedy ball that's also ridiculously small."

Scorpius, and the two others that were also trying out for seekers nodded.

"It's just my luck we have the right amount of beaters," Paisley laughed.

Paisley halved the students out try-outs, Albus and Scorpius were on opposing teams, and Albus was on the same team as Paisley. Scorpius was rather nervous playing _against_ the captain, what if he screwed up too much as a chaser?

"Rules of quidditch, everyone knows them right?" Paisley asked with a raised brow.

Everyone nods, and many smirk smugly.

"I would be worried if any didn't," Rose muttered.

At the blow of her whistle, all brooms left ground, and the chaos began. If Rose thought the previous exercise was bad, this was worse. The violence escalated, although nobody dared to lay a fingernail on Paisley.

Until Scorpius rammed into her at full force. When they both regained balance Scorpius was shell-socked that Paisley continued zooming down the field, quaffle still tucked under her arm. She dove sharply to the left hoop before at the last moment she thrusted her broom upwards, it was so sharp that the broom was nearly perfectly vertical. She threw the ball at the centre hoop and the hopeful keeper, Greg Meyers, instead of catching the ball, he caught the hoop. With his face. His grip slipped from his broom for a few seconds, but he steadied himself, and turned an embarrassing shade of red.

"Agile and speed aren't only for seekers!" Paisley shouted at the team.

The game went on for another half hour, but with the way Rose and Noah were, anybody thought it went on for half a decade.

"Bloody hell finally!" Rose threw her hands up when Paisley announced the game was over.

"Deep breaths in, deep breaths out," sighed Noah, who also appeared rather agitated.

Paisley once again was at the parchment, jotting down more notes, looking up at the players every now and then, smiling.

"I am sure about my chasers," she said to them, "and I have an idea who I want as beaters, but I need to make sure. One last drill, and it's simple," she finished with a smirk.

She bent down to the trunk and opened up the tiniest compartment, with her thumb and her index and middle fingers, she plucked out the small golden ball.

"Scorpius Malfoy, Leia Greengrass and Patrick DeNozzo, you know your mission," she let out a chuckle as she let go of the snitch, it instantly flitted away at incredible speed.

"Off you go," she ushered when the three of them just stared at her.

"The one who catches the snitch, is the one who will be my seeker!" Paisley yelled out at the three, who were all zooming around the pitch, searching for the snitch.

"I'm not going to make all of you sit here and watch though," Paisley chuckled.

"Goyle," the said Wizard snapped his head to full attention.

"Get your bat, when I release the bludger I want you to make sure Scorpius Malfoy does not get the snitch."

"Fucking bitch," Rose growled.

Noah frowned at the statement.

"Whales, get your bat, make sure DeNozzo does not reach the snitch."

"Ohhhh," at this moment, Noah and Rose immediately knew that they were being dumbasses.

"Quin, get your bat, make sure Greengrass does not capture the snitch."

"What do I do?" Asked Anthony Powers, the fourth boy to sign up for beater.

"I'm sorry Powers, today in the exercise it became evident that the other three boys out-skill you on the Quidditch Pitch, I thank you for your efforts but I now must ask you to leave try outs," Paisley told him. Her tone, although calm and collected, it did not appear 100% sorry about the outcomes.

Powers grumbled and growled about the situation before doing a rather un-manly sulking as he trudged off and away.

"I do know who my Keeper is, and who my fellow two Chasers are," Paisley said before looking up to the sky.

It was clear that Quin had the most action with the bludger, he was faster than Whales and Goyle, however his aim was always slightly off, although most of that was due to Greengrass' dodging abilities. Paisley made sure to jot that down.

"Does anything but catching the snitch at this moment matter when it comes to your decision making?" Albus asked, craning his neck to look at the six flying wizards.

"Nope," Paisley popped.

"Why?" Albus furrowed his brows.

"The three beaters up there are all extremely close in skill, so the seeker who catches the snitch should be the most talented out of the three. The beaters I will judge on performance, the person who was assigned to the winning seeker will not receive penalty, it only means that they were given a higher-skilled person to hunt down," Paisley explained.

Albus nodded, "suppose so," he mumbled.

Rose was clutching the bar in front of her, hands turning white, eyes glued to one wizard only.

"You seemed rather enraptured at the moment," Noah drawled, turning a page in a book he brought up.

"I'm merely supporting the best friend of my cousin and my other best friend," Rose snapped.

Yet her eyes did not stray.

"Like I said before Weasley, I am gay, but certainly not blind."

"Noah I know what you're implying, and I certainly don't-"

Rose was cut off by a loud crack of the bludger meeting the bat of beater Goyle, the beater knew what he was doing, because the bludger was thrown on a discreet curve, that happened to be the direction that Scorpius veered to in order to dodge it. A direct thud to the chest was shortly followed by a near-deafening shriek. Albus watched horrified, Scorpius was coughing up a storm and swayed on his broom.

"Tactful beating," Paisley muttered to herself before once again scribbling away at her parchment.

Albus turned his eyes to Rose, who was now arguing to Noah, but he could have sworn that it was her mouth that the shriek came from.

"Shut the bloody fuck up, Alibrandi!" Rose seethed, whipping out her wand.

Instead he double over laughing, wiping away at a tear that threatened to fall.

"At least I showed _some_ concern-"

" _Some!?_ Rose," Noah could barely breathe, "you were mortified!"

Rose's grip on her wand tightened.

"You're over here laughing!" Rose screamed at him.

The students on the ground turned up to look at Rose.

"Was that her that screamed before?" Paisley asked Albus.

"Can't be Noah," Albus frowned.

Paisley chuckled, "if the boy I fancied were up there and got struck like that, I would've probably thrown myself over the railing in a wasted effort to save him," she ended with a snort.

"Rose doesn't fancy Scorpius," Albus deadpanned.

When Paisley met his eye she saw the way the green darkened, and made a mental note not to even joke about the subject.

"Well of course, she didn't jump off the railing did she?"

"They've spotted the snitch!" A girl who tried out for chaser called.

Immediately all focus was on the seekers who were all rushing towards the golden ball, Greengrass gave a hard shove into Scorpius, who barely flinched.

"A little girl's shove shouldn't be anything compared to the bludger," Paisley snorted.

"They're cousins, sure he's used to it," Albus laughed.

If Albus was more observant, I'm sure he would notice the small amounts of colour that appeared on the apple of Paisley Zabini's cheeks.

' _THWACK'_

' _THUD'_

" _FUCK!"_

DeNozzo was thrown from this broom, and thrown from the chances of catching the snitch. Paisley was quick to whip out her wand.

"Immobulus!" she cried out.

DeNozzo stopped falling, and was instead stuck in thin air.

"Anybody want to get in my good books and go get him? Paisley joked.

Greg Meyers immediately hopped onto his broom, off to go rescue DeNozzo.

It was a close call between Scorpius and Leia, both were practically neck and neck, leaning as far forward as possible, arms stretching to their limits-

The cheering started, a small roar of the students on the ground.

"That settles it, our Seeker," Paisley smiled, "congratulations Scorpius Malfoy!"

"Look at the stupid smug git waving it in the air," Rose grumbled.

"You can't cover up what happened earlier," Noah said to her as he shut his book.

"I can damn try," Rose muttered under her breath, "momentarily forgot who the git was."

"Now to the important part, who the entire team is!" Paisley shouted with a large grin across her face.

When Scorpius touched the ground Albus made sure to jump on him and ruffle his hair, Scorpius laughed, still clasping the snitch tightly in his palm.

"Our Seeker, obviously, is Scorpius Malfoy!"

Rose and Noah finished walking down the stairs and were on the way over to the team.

"Our Keeper, although one hell of a miss earlier on, I was impressed by his judgement between a feint and real intent on scoring, Greg Meyers!"

That did only mildly shock Rose, although Meyer's did have that unfortunate miss, coupled with the collision of the scoring post, he did appear to out-match a now rather disappointed Kim Beverly.

"My dear Chasers alongside me, Albus Potter and Kuan Yin!"

It was now Scorpius turn to give Albus a good knuckle sandwich, Rose cheered proudly and excitedly clapped her hands. Noah had a huge grin on his face, also clapping enthusiastically.

"It was a hard decision to choose my beaters, but early on it became evident that I need to have Asher Goyle, the ever-so-slight curve and that direct blowing hit to Scorpius, bloody brilliant!"

Goyle got a few claps on the bat, even Scorpius gave him a "well done."

"The final beater and member of the Slytherin Quidditch Team,

"Fletcher Quin!"

Those who made the team all roared and cheered, jumping on each other and hooting like wild animals.

When Albus left to go talk to Rose and Noah, Paisley intercepted his path.

"I am very impressed at your ability Potter, I reckon one day you'll out-play your mum," she told him, with a huge smile.

Albus looked at the ground, slightly red-faced.

"Look at wittle Albus blushing," Rose taunted in a small whisper so that only Noah could hear.

She glanced to look at his face, and it was stony and unreadable, but that's all she needed.

"What's got Noah's knicker's in a twist," Scorpius howled as he slung his arms around Rose and Noah.

"What makes you think-"

"You've got one of those masks that is unreadable, however this differs from your default emotion everyone knows you by, boredom."

Albus must've made a funny joke, because Paisley was reeling with laughter.

"Even her laughing is perfect," Rose sighed.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow.

"Noah did you convince her into gayness?"

"That's not possible-"

"Is it contagious, is that what happened-"

"Fuck off," Noah shrugged Scorpius arm off his shoulder.

This happened to be the moment that Albus Potter looked up.

Noah glaring at Scorpius, who had his arm around Rose.

 **AN: Yes, yes a lot of quidditch, I understand if you skipped over it. Won't hurt my feelings…too much. I'm only kidding, but don't forget to review if you liked it or if you think I have something I need to improve!**


	6. The Way of Albus

**AN: Sorry it's took a while for this one, I've been doing some study *gasp* as well as working on a one-shot that's a bit larger than expected. Enjoy**

Scorpius laid in his bed, his stomach uneasy. Although the sixth year dormitory was dark, he could still make out a few shapes, such as Fletcher Quin clutching his pillow tightly as he slept. He could also see Noah, who slept like a stereotypical vampire, dead straight on his back. Albus was the opposite, he was sprawled all over the place, and kept moving around.

"Ah bugger," the soft mutter of Albus' voice pricked Scorpius' ears.

"You alright mate?" He asked.

"Mmm," Albus paused, sitting up, "kinda."

"Six years and still quidditch nerves?" Scorpius chuckled as he also sat up.

"Yeah," Albus replied quietly, toying with his bedsheet.

Scorpius looked over at his mate, who was leaning against the wall. He wished he had some sort of night vision, to get a glance at his friend's face, to get a glance of what was swimming in the mind of Albus Potter. After a few minutes, Albus' voice cut through the silence.

"You are getting pretty chummy with Rose."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scorpius bit his tongue after noticing his defensive tone.

"Well, you're sitting at her with breakfast-"

"Big deal," Scorpius snorted.

"You're spending a lot of alone time together-"

"Utter bullshit," Scorpius interrupted again.

"Today you put your arm around her!"

"Shu' up," Fletcher groaned, plopping his pillow on top of his head.

"I put my arms around both Rose and Noah," Scorpius said to him.

Albus sighed and laid back down.

"I suppose I'm reading too much into this, I guess."

"You think?" Scorpius chortled.

There was a few moments of silence, Scorpius let his eyelids drop, praying that he could finally fall into a slumber. As his thoughts started to blur and fade, he was brought back into reality.

"Mate?"

"What?" Scorpius said rather groggily.

"You just called her Rose," Albus whispered.

"You and Noah call her 'Rose,' every bloody day," Scorpius snorted," bloody hell Albus I was bound to do it sometime."

"I suppose," Albus responded quietly.

Scorpius frowned at his friend's tone. Sure, he knew that Albus wasn't the most supportive of anybody having romantic interest in his cousins and sister, but this attitude was still unusual. He seemed like he was holding back or hiding something, a small underlying tone in his voice led Scorpius to believe Albus was scared of something.

"Mate?" Scorpius' voice reached out.

"Hmm?" came Albus' reply.

"What's beating you up?" Scorpius chose a careful tone, as if he was picking up already cracked glass, awaiting for it to be shattered at any given moment.

"You know how you and Rose are spending time together, well," Albus inhaled sharply, "Noah and I have been spending a lot of time together also."

His voice quaked, and Scorpius' heart picked up its pace. His stomach was now stirring a mixture of concern and anticipation.

"Is he asleep?" Albus whispered, his voice still shaking.

"Dunno," Scorpius' replied with a tone equally as hushed.

"Kitchens?"

"Of course," Scorpius grinned.

The two boys both shuffled out of bed and quickly scuffled out of their dormitory and common room. They were careful while navigating the dark halls of Hogwarts, ears alert at all times, making sure that each corridor held no footsteps before daring to turn the corner. Eventually they stopped off at the portrait, and Scorpius raised his finger to tickle the pair. That's when the magic happened, a door appeared before opening to reveal inside a well-equipped kitchen.

"Ice cream or hot chocolate?" Albus asked Scorpius as the two walked into the kitchen.

"Both," Scorpius immediately answered practically skipping across the kitchen.

"Both is good," Albus laughed.

Scorpius grabbed the chocolate powder from inside a giant pantry, filled floor to ceiling with dry ingredients, seasonings, containers and possibly everything every chef in the world would sell their soul for. Albus instead went for the freezer, and grabbed out two containers of ice-cream, he also trotted to the fridge to get the milk for Scorpius.

"Cheers," Scorpius said when Albus plopped the carton on the bench.

After mixing the chocolate powder and milk, Scorpius muttered a heating spell, and continued to combine the chocolate and milk. Meanwhile, Albus grabbed two bowls and two spoons, and transferred the two ice-cream flavours, cookie-dough and chocolate, into the two bowls he collected.

"So why did you not want Noah to overhear?" Scorpius asked, as he handed his friend his hot chocolate.

The two sat down on the floor, Albus handed Scorpius his bowl and spoon, without making any eye contact. No matter how hard Scorpius tried, Albus' emerald eyes were fixated on his ice cream.

"Because I'm kind of confused," Albus squeaked.

Scorpius sipped his hot chocolate, allowing Albus' words to mull over in his mind.

"Elaborate," he responded crisply, stirring his hot beverage.

Albus sighed heavily, his entire body shaking, his eyes not daring to leave the bowl of ice cream.

"I," another heavy exhale, "I think I fancy him."

Scorpius almost didn't hear Albus' words over the sound of his spoon clanking against the bowl of ice cream. Albus finally looked up at Scorpius, and frowned at his expression. Scorpius' eyes were twinkling, and had a grin that stretched across his face, from one ear to another.

"I bloody knew it," Scorpius did a little dance as he shoved the next spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

"What?" Albus gawked, dropping his spoon in his bowl.

"I told Weasley you played for both quidditch teams," Scorpius smirked, "she didn't believe me."

Albus' expression contorted into more horror.

"So, when you suspected, you then told _ROSE?"_

"Of course I did," Scorpius rolled his eyes, "how else do I gain an ally before trying to set the two of you up."

"Ex- what- huh!" Albus eyes were widened, his face paled and his mouth hanging so close to the ground it almost brushed the floor.

Scorpius continued smirking and doing his little shuffling dance.

"Don't you worry about a thing Albus, " Scorpius assured with a wicked and ever-growing smirk, "Weasley and I are taking care of it."

This did not ease Albus' anxieties, not one measly little bit.

The next morning Albus and Scorpius were nearly dead at breakfast.

"Honestly, you both need better sleeping habits," Rose scolded before taking a mouthful of egg.

Both Albus and Scorpius had pale, washed out faces with dark purple circles patched underneath their blood-shot, glassy eyes.

"Yes, mum," Scorpius scoffed giving her a glare with his drooping eyes.

Rose rolled her eyes, and then one of her favourite people strolled on over.

"Oh little brother!" Claudia planted herself next to the groggy Malfoy.

"Hello," Noah dryly greeted her.

"I have another letter mum and dad," she told him, waving around said letter, she then turned to Albus and Scorpius, "long night fellas?"

Albus grunted.

"Had trouble sleeping, then got ice-cream," Scorpius shrugged before taking a huge gulp of tea.

"Well I tend to fall asleep late myself," Claudia smirked and her eyes flickered across the table briefly, "I'll be happy to keep you company if you ever need a buddy throughout the night."

Her sentence ended in an almost purr-like manner, and a nearby jug of pumpkin juice exploded, flinging shattered glass across the Slytherin breakfast table. The juice itself ran across the table, and down onto the floor. Noah let out a heavy exhale, Claudia's smirk increased in size.

"Anyway," her eyes flickered again, and held a mischievous glint, "mum and dad are going back to Italy for the summer, to visit Nonna-"

Noah groaned and turned his face to the ceiling.

"You're just jealous _I'm_ Nonna's favourite-"

"Cazzate," Noah hissed.

The two twins migrated their conversation into Italian, leaving the heads of the other three friends spinning. Occasionally they understood a few words, because Noah had been so kind to teach them how to swear in Italian so that they could use the vulgar language during classes. This unfortunately ended after the Professors caught on.

"I wish I could speak a different language," Rose sighed as the Italian twins kept spitting at each other.

Scorpius smirked at her, and muttered a few words neither Rose nor Albus understood.

"Excuse me?" Albus' eyes popped.

"I choose to stay at Hogwarts," and Noah finally spoke English once again.

"Scorpius just mumbled gibberish-"

"French," Scorpius corrected with a haughty smile that did not quite have its full effect on a sleepless face.

"You? French?" Albus tilted his head.

"Malfoy, French name, French origin," Scorpius snorted, "besides, my mother and father thought that a proper gentlemen should be able to speak the language of love."

It was Rose's turn to snort. Scorpius raised his eyebrow at her, and spoke, once again in French.

"Back to the main event at hand," Noah rolled his eyes and sighed, "my parents are going to Italy for Christmas, so I will be stuck at Hogwarts."

Albus and Rose let out inhuman shrieks of horror.

"You will come to The Burrow!" They both announced in unison, looking at Noah with widened eyes that otherwise say, 'you have no choice.'

"The Burrow?" Claudia repeated with a scrunch of her nose.

"The place of a Weasley Christmas," Rose scoffed, "our grandparent's home."

"Usually Noah and I visit for a few nights," Scorpius added with a smile.

"Grandma Molly is even making them Weasley sweaters," Albus chimed in.

"You should've seen my father's face when I came home last year," Scorpius laughed, "I came home wearing the sweater and declared myself part of the Weasley family and he just had a spaz on the couch.

Albus laughed in memory of the letter Scorpius owled him after said incident.

"Ronald Weasley was also not the happiest of wizards," Noah chuckled.

"He turned purple," Rose shook her head let out a few breaths that slightly resembled laughter.

"It was almost as bad as the time Rose dated Terrance McLaggen-"

"Don't remind me," Rose groaned.

"He was twitching about like a mad man, colour of a blueberry," Albus stated with cheshire grin.

"His little Rosie isn't allowed any more boyfriends," Scorpius teased mockingly.

Rose just glared at him with her arms folded.

"Once again, back at the task at hand, Christmas at The Burrow," Claudia urged, rather irritated.

"No big," Rose waved her off, "I'll send an owl to mum after Defence."

"Why aren't you and Noah going to Italy along with your parents?" Scorpius asked her.

"Nonna's a crazy old bat," Noah scoffed.

"She's homophobic," Claudia translated bluntly.

Instantly Scorpius, Rose and Albus all turned to Noah, with faces wrinkled with concern. Well, Albus and Scorpius had a few more wrinkles than Rose, mostly due to the current sleep-deprived state of the two.

"Always ranting about marriage and children too," Claudia added.

"Let's not forget, ' _Noah, being gay iz not zee way zat Christ asked vor!'"_ Noah mimicked his nonna's tone and accent mockingly.

"I'll leave you four now," and with that, Claudia sashayed away.

"Bloody Italian grandmas, I tell you," Noah mumbled.

He stared at his pumpkin juice, swirling it around in his goblet. The corner of his mouth twitch and he let out an aggravated sigh.

"Noah," Rose's voice croaked.

"It's alright," Noah still refused eye contact, "she's just, it's her opinion. I guess I can't change it."

"You're family," Albus whispered, his voice crackled in his throat.

Noah laughed darkly, and finally looked up.

"And that's the issue, I can't give her bloody grandchildren because I want to be with another man," he spat with venom.

"That's what Claudia can do-"

"But Claudia can't give an Alibrandi," Noah growled, "I'm the last male Alibrandi and can't give any more to the linage."

"I can kind of sympathise," Scorpius chewed his lip, "I got a spiel from grandfather about marrying a pure-blood, to continue on the Malfoy linage. At the age of four years old he forced my father to let me have 'play-dates," Scorpius placed the word inside mocking air quotes, "of course all of these play-mates of mine were around my age, female, and above all, pure of blood," Scorpius told him.

"So, your grandfather was trying to sneak in an arranged courtship?" Rose questioned.

"Yep," Scorpius popped.

"Can we focus on Noah?" Albus sighed.

"Can we not?" Noah snapped, "I get it, I've dealt with it, my Nonna can't deal with my sexuality."

"Noah," the way Albus said his name gave a pang to Noah's chest. His voice was so gentle, almost as if it cradled his name with love and concern.

"It's fine," Noah finalised under his breath.

In Potions class the Professor immediately called for the separation of Rose and Scorpius. The class giggled as Rose had to move herself to the opposite side of the classroom, next to Elaine Hollins. Rose had a small issue with Elaine, for she was rather annoying. The girl just never shut her mouth, like a heavy-duty motor it constantly ran, and often at high speed. Rose couldn't help giving the girl one compliment, was that she never had a bad word to say. Although half of Hogwarts became sick of Elaine Hollins' voice, nobody necessarily disliked her, she was too damned friendly to just simply dislike.

"Hiya Rose," she greeted with an overly peppy tone.

"Hey," Rose replied with a short crunch.

"It's your sixth year, and we really need to up the anty," the Professor commented, "turn to page 316, and make-sure you follow carefully, Pixie Dust can be rather," she cringed, "painful if incorrect."

Elaine smirked at this, Rose looked at her rather worriedly, before mentally telling herself to calm down. Although Scorpius and Rose were neck and neck in grades, Elaine always soared above and beyond in Potions, no matter how hard the two tried, Elaine's potions always had that extra quality that made it seem like a master-level potion.

"Alright," Rose said, "do you want me to collect and you prepare?" She asked nervously.

"Sounds all gee," Elaine responded with a hop of her shoulders.

Rose grabbed a few ingredients from the pantry at a time, and delivered them to Elaine. When she brought the final few ingredients, Rose frowned at her partner.

"Why did you cut the Acromantula skin?"

"It's supposed to dissolve into the Potion, correct?" Elaine answered with a question.

Rose nodded.

"Similar to muggle cooking and baking, if you want something to dissolve or cook faster, then you divide it into smaller portions to allow coverage to a larger surface area."

Rose's jaw popped open ever so slightly. Something so simple and little, and she had completely overlooked it.

"But, we're still supposed to follow-"

"Sometimes instructions are wrong, or improvisations are better," Elaine cut off, as she cut the acromantula eyes finely. She put her palm on the opposite side of the blade, and made quick motions across the cutting board.

"Where did you learn that technique?" Rose questioned in awe as her eyes were glued to the tiny bits on the chopping board.

"Muggle cooking shows," Elaine giggled, "advantages of being muggle born, there are plenty of television shows on how to better your cooking skill, and the same principles apply to potion making. So I also grabbed a few textbooks, and tried to learn about how the ingredients affect each other, similarly to how flour thickens batter, powdered oak root thickens certain types of potions, as long as they don't include eye of newt-"

"Cool," Rose quickly injected before Elaine could further her ramblings.

Rose stole a glance over at Albus and Scorpius, who were talking in quiet mutters, she also looked behind her at Noah, who was smirking with a raised eyebrow.

"Fuck off," Rose said to him.

"Miss Weasley, five points from Slytherin for foul language."

Rose groaned and Scorpius laughed. Rose didn't work on much of her potion, Elaine, at random intervals, would deviate from the instructions, and Rose the perfectionist often cringed when Elaine over-stirred, stirred too few, added extras of ingredients and she even asked for an ingredient not even in the recipe! Rose's heart rate quickened when she compared their cauldron to other's around them. It looked like Elaine was stirring golden eyeshadow, it was like looking at glitter in a liquid form.

"Right, just the incantation," Elaine chirpily announced to her partner.

"Does it differ from the book?" Rose asked her dryly, clearly unimpressed with her partner's habit of deviation.

Elaine shook her head. Rose whipped out her wand and looked at their potion.

"I really don't want to mess this up," she whispered to herself.

"You can't," Elaine laughed, "you're top of transfiguration and charms, well sometimes, depends on Scorpius," Elaine giggled, "you're better for this job than I am."

Rose nodded and mumbled a thanks before directing her wand at the cauldron.

" _Clarrise."_

Rose almost dropped her wand in awe, the mixture turned itself into a bubble before doing a small explosion, turning itself into a fine, golden dust.

"Holy shit," Rose mumbled.

"Language again, Miss Weasley, another five points," her Potions Professor scolded before walking over to take a look into her cauldron. Her eyes widened.

"How in Merlins name!" She gasped.

She took a clear spoon and scooped up a small amount of the dust. She turned it over and the glitter sprinkled back into the pot. It was nearly nothing like the glitter Rose remembered from crafting as a child, it was if the gold was sifted like flour, into fine golden grains that twinkled like a starry sky.

"A perfect O," The Professor exhaled with awe.

Elaine smiled, her eyes nearly holding the sparkle of the Pixie Dust she concocted.

It was after dinner, and the favourite four friends were hanging out in the common room. Noah was reading whatever book held his fancy, Rose was scribbling notes from a Potion's textbook, and Scorpius were playing Wizard's Chess.

"Knight to E5," Scorpius stated, grinning when it knight beheaded Albus' bishop.

"Honestly, I wish I didn't have smart friends," Albus grumbled.

Scorpius smirked in triumph as Ablus contemplated his next move.

"I want to speak with every Potion Creator, ever," Rose commented as she scribbled down yet another note on her parchment.

"If Noah wasn't gay, you two would make the perfect nerd couple," Scorpius laugh as Albus declared his move in chess.

"What do you mean?" Albus asked him.

"He," Scorpius pointed to Noah, "is reading for fun, and Weasley," he pointed to Rose, "is bloody _researching POTIONS_ for fun!"

Noah and Rose both rolled their eyes.

"Reading helps improve your spelling, grammar and punctuation, all necessary elements for a good essay," Noah said to them.

"Elaine bloody Hollins has given me her secret to why she's a bloody potions prodigy," Rose said through gritted teeth, "and it's so fucking simple I'm angry at myself."

"Yes, Rose, one normally studies to gain further knowledge," Noah drawled dryly, turning a page in his book.

"That's not just it you see!" Rose exclaimed, "She doesn't follow the instructions! She goes off on her own knowledge of the potions, like today, she cut up the acromantula skin instead of placing it in whole, because it dissolves faster!"

"Bloody hell that is simple," Scorpius groaned.

Noah looked like he was ready to bash his forehead with his book, his knuckles turning white with the grip.

"And she uses muggle cooking techniques, she cut the eyes so small that they were almost invisible today!"

"Mother of Merlin how have I never tried to combine muggle cooking with potions," Noah slapped himself with his book, "I'm bloody half Italian for fucks sake, Nonna and Mama made sure I could fucking cook!"

"Because usually muggle things and wizard things don't mix?" Scorpius offered in a well-duh tone.

"Except potions and cooking are the exact same bloody thing, sometimes you don't follow the recipe, if you want a thicker batter, you add flour, and if you want golder pixie dust, add fruit bat blood."

"That wasn't even in the recipe," Scorpius tried to argue.

"Exactly!" Rose shrieked at him, "Elaine is a bloody genius!"

"I need to look into this more," Scorpius noted out loud.

"Weren't you just making fun of Rose and Noah for this?" Albus asked him with a laugh.

"Now Scorpius and Rose can be a perfect nerd couple," Noah chuckled.

All three of Noah's friends rounded on him and fixed on some cold glares. This made Noah laugh all the harder.

"You just wait," Noah smirked.

"I have my bets elsewhere," Rose stated coolly.

Albus turned to Scorpius with widened eyes. Scorpius gave him a thumbs up and cheeky grin. Noah missed this exchange, his eyes instead roaming the pages of the book in front of him.

"Double Defence with Ravenclaws is always a great start to my Wednesdays," Albus said as the four walked to their next class.

"You got that right," Scorpius agreed.

The halls of Hogwarts were now filled with students from every house and age group, all making their way to the next class. There were a few First Years, despite being at Hogwarts for over a month, who are yet to grasp where their classes are.

"How long does it take to know where the hell you've been going," Rose grumbled as _another_ first year almost collided with her, his nose was buried in a map, and he screamed an apology before scampering away from Rose's glare.

"We were almost as bad," Noah reminded her.

"Two weeks is a pretty standard timing for getting to know a large castle," Rose defended.

"Weasley, you still get lost," Scorpius laughed.

"Bugger off," Rose's response ended with shoving Scorpius into the wall next to him.

"Feisty-"

"Shut up the both of you," Albus told them, "I will not let another Rose and Scorpius argument ruin my perfect Wednesday morning."

"They're pretty funny sometimes, you have to admit," Noah said with a small smile.

When Noah turned his attention back to where he was walking, Scorpius gave Albus a small nudge of encouragement. The four wizards, and witch, continued their trek until they reached their classroom.

"I believe we are early," Scorpius gloated with a triumphant grin, "look how studious we are, well on our way to perfect NEWTS-"

"Being two minutes early-"

"Shhh Weasley, nobody cares," Scorpius said as they all sat down at their desks.

"It's weird how the desks aren't already separated," Albus frowned, "usually for a double DADA the desks are off to the side so we can have a practical lesson."

A few moments later, Professor Schmitt decided to grace his students with his presence.

"Apologies for my tardiness, I know I'm only two minutes late-"

Scorpius smirked at Rose and muttered, "see, two minutes counts."

"However I was finishing my lesson plan," Schmitt turned pink as he sheepishly admitted, "that I kinda left last minute."

There was a few mumbles of "'s alright," and "yeah, whatever."

"Right, well the main topic, or goal if you will, is to study and to get as many students as possible to get down at least some of the Patronus Charm."

"Are you insane?" Rose shrieked across the classroom.

Everybody instantly turned to look at the, furiously blushing from face to neck, Rose Weasley.

"Yes, Miss Weasley," Professor Schmitt said to her, caught off-guard.

"There are many adult wizards and witches who can't cast it," Rose argued.

"Hence why we are teaching it, so you can-"

"What's the point? When am I ever going to fight a dementor-"

"Do not make me take points from Slytherin, Miss Weasley," Professor Schmitt snapped.

He sighed and rubbed his temples before gazing upon his class. Many students were rolling their eyes at Rose, however a few seemed amused.

"You get used to her," Scorpius joked.

This caused a few chuckles to emerge from the class.

"Thank you, Mr Malfoy for your injection," Professor Schmitt commented sarcastically, "back on task here, who can tell me what a Patronus is."

Rose's hand, along with a few Ravenclaws, immediately shot in the air.

"Miss Wren?"

"A Patronus Charm can come in two forms, corporeal and non-corporeal. It's a spell that is used to combat dementors, and it's basically a burst of happiness and it can take the form of an animal, usually an animal that represents your soul," Abbie Wren answered.

"Good enough, ten points for Ravenclaw."

"As Miss Weasley mentioned, this is a ridiculously advanced Charm, however recent studies have shown that due to current Wizarding World for once _not_ being at war with a Dark Lord, the current generation find it easier to cast a Patronus, compared to their parents and grandparents," Professor Schmitt explained, "So they are introducing the spell into the curriculum for DADA, it was originally going to be for Charms, however they deemed it more appropriate in this subject, any further questions?" Professor Schmitt ended, sending Rose a pointed look.

"What are the expectations of being able to produce this spell?" She asked, almost smugly.

"Non-corporeal, by the end of your Sixth Year, at the moment it appears you should be able to have a full-corporeal and hold it for 20 seconds by end of your Seventh," Professor Schmitt immediately answered.

Several students raised their voices in protest, Scorpius sat there gobsmacked.

"So, let's start practicing. There isn't much to know, make sure your wand gesture is similar to an incomplete circle that trails off into another direction, and think of the happiest memory you can, I shall give you an example," Professor Schmitt raised his wand and took a deep breath.

"Expecto Patronum!" He twirled his wand in a round shape and continued to drag it down. Out of his wand burst a silver animal that was almost transparent. It appeared to be some sort of giant cat, Rose tossed around the idea that it was a panther. The panther vanished in a puff of silver smoke. Professor Schmitt's students gazed at him with awe.

"Professor," one girl called out, "if you don't mind us knowing, what memory did you use?"

"The birth of my daughter," he answered her with a beam.

"How the hell am I going to conjure a memory equivalent to _birth_ ," Rose muttered to herself with gritted teeth.

"Alright, let's separate these desks and practice."

After enduring the scrapings of wood against concrete, and having people crash into her. Rose wanted to cut her ears off, every bloody person in the classroom was yelling out the incantation, as if the volume of which you said the spell made it more likely to appear.

"Nothing is happening!" Albus whined shaking his wand.

"It takes a while to master," Noah reminded him with a drawl.

"I don't even know what to think of," Scorpius admitted.

"I'm thinking of my first night at Hogwarts," Albus told him with a grin.

Noah and Scorpius laughed at the memory. The three males and the other Slytherin boys pulled an all-nighter, snacking on their lollies and junk food that was supposed to accompany them during their train ride. There were games of exploding snap and showing off little spells their parents had taught them.

"Then what in the name of Merlin do I use?" Rose asked with a scrunched nose.

"When you met me?" Scorpius cheekily offered.

Rose gave him a smack behind his head.

"Actually," Noah chuckled softly, "my memory is meeting you guys."

Albus roared in laughter, "if I were you, that would probably be my favourite too."

It was a rather interesting train ride. The train had left the station, Rose and Albus were sitting in a compartment with their older cousins. Deciding that it was too rowdy, they left to explore the train. They came across Scorpius Malfoy, alone in a compartment. Albus and Rose had a hushed argument about going in to see him. Albus arguing not to be judgmental, as his father suggested. Rose rebutted, stating her father warned her about him. Eventually Rose and Albus opened to door, to Scorpius raising his eyebrow at them.

"I heard every word," he greeted with a laugh, "So I guess we skip introductions."

Albus laughed nervously, "I suppose."

Rose was still wary, and gave a nod.

"If it's any any help, my father kind of gave me a mixture of your advices. He told me to be nice, but he also told me it would be of my benefit to stay away," Scorpius said to them.

"So how do we go about this?" Rose asked.

"Go about what?" Albus questioned.

"Do we stay here or do we go, do we follow orders or do we leave," Rose rolled her eyes with her arms followed.

"Rule-sticker, Weasley?" Scorpius leaned back and gave her a smirk.

"I prefer the term, being respectful, Malfoy," she spat at him.

"Oh Merlin," Albus moaned, knowing exactly how Rose will be for the rest of the train ride.

He was right on the galleons, whenever Scorpius would joke around, Rose would snap. She always gave into the bait. While Albus agreed he was a bit of an arse, he was a pretty alright bloke. He was nice to Albus, offered his sweets and was able to keep up good conversation. Rose, however, stopped her opinion at, "he's a bloody prick." There was a point during the train journey that Rose and Scorpius were arguing about whose skin was paler.

"Are you bloody kidding, Malfoy!" Rose yelled, "You're practically an albino!"

"You're paler than a bloody parchment!" Scorpius shouted, "only difference is that you're a parchment with dirt spots all over you!" He pointed to the abundance of freckles that coated Rose's complexion.

"You're face is nearly purple!"

"You're so washed out you're grey!"

"Grey is better than purple!"

"Hah! You admitted you're grey!"

That's when Noah opened the compartment door, staring at the three inside as if they were complete lunatics. His eyes were widened and he poked in his face with extreme caution.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Expecto Patronum!" And yet nothing produced from Noah's wand.

"Jesus Christ," he seethed.

"Still not as powerful as Merlin, but I respect the guy for turning water into wine," Scorpius joked at him.

"Expecto Patronum!"

It happened so quickly Rose didn't think it happened at all. A small puff of a smoke-like smoke burst from her wand, and vanished as quickly. Her eyes widened and she stood back. She wasn't the first in the room to get this result, as Araby Joyce held that honour, but none-the-less Rose still received praised.

"What memory did you use, Rose?" Albus asked her excitedly.

"The train ride," Rose's voice was so soft it was almost a whisper.

She held her wand out and stared at it horrifically, almost as if the wand disobeyed her. She looked up to Noah, who had a smirk so smug it could rival Scorpius Malfoy.

"Expecto Patronum!"

Albus' wand gave a silvery light much stronger than Rose's, and possibly the strongest in his class. It lasted about ten seconds before it faded away.

"Congrats mate," Scorpius clapped him on the back and beamed, "what memory did you use?"

"Also the train ride," Albus admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Scorpius shrugged as Noah gave the charm a try another time. His wand gave a few sparks, but nothing that could yet resemble the Patronus Charm.

"I think I'll call it there everyone," Professor Schmitt called out, "due to the success of many students with being able to give a few seconds of something that resembles a non-corporeal, I think I'll let you off early. Those who wish to stay back to practice may."

Many students cheered, but there were a few stubborn chunks that remained behind to practice. Rose immediately packed up and ran from the classroom frantically, bumping into a few Ravenclaws.

"What's with her?" Albus turned to Noah with a frown.

"I'm sure we'll find out," Noah laughed.

"Expecto Patronum!" Scorpius muttered.

His wand gave a silver glow and burst of silver light shot across the room. He retracted his wand with a smile and small chuckle.

"I guess the train ride memory works."

Noah face-palmed and groaned.

 **AN: I know that adding in learning the Patronus was risky. But I placed my reasoning in Professor Schmitt's speech, it won't be** _ **AS**_ **hard for this lot, especially because they're not performing it in front of a dementor, or even a boggart in the form of a dementor. Besides, many of Dumbledor's Army were able to cast a non-corporeal, and many learned quickly. Harry was only 13/14 when he learned to cast this too. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed**


	7. The Way of a Match

"First Quidditch match!" Albus exclaimed in the middle of breakfast.

Most of the hall ignored this outburst, at least five similar declarations have been made during the morning's meal. Instead, the students of Hogwarts decided to chat amongst themselves and munch on their pieces of toast. Rose and Noah looked at Albus with eyes that screamed boredom.

"Come on, first quidditch match, Slytherin versus Gryffindor, age old rivals," Scorpius said, giving the biggest smile Rose thought she'd possibly seen from him.

"A rivalry I don't care about," Noah drawled before adding sarcastically, "riveting indeed."

"Another family quidditch match," Rose rolled her eyes, "the most exciting part is placing bets to see which Potter cries after the match."

"Oi!" Albus protested as his face slowly made its transition into a tomato.

"It will be James!" Scorpius yelled victoriously, although Rose had no idea what he won, or what planet he was on.

"James graduated," Rose deadpanned.

Albus and Noah chuckled. Scorpius just simply shrugged at Rose, looking rather unscathed from his embarrassing outburst.

"I might even skip the match," Rose pondered out loud, "we have our Potions essay due Monday, and our Charms questions due that afternoon-"

"Weasley," Scorpius snapped her out of her audible thoughts, "be realistic, you've completed those essays."

When Rose gave a sigh of defeat Scorpius flashed her a smug smirk.

"I should know," Scorpius continued, "I was there while you were scribbling away your precious E-worthy essays."

"E worthy?" Rose questioned with a dangerous tone, "Malfoy we all know my Charms tops yours-"

"Who is the better at Defence?" Scorpius challenged in return, "oh that's right-"

"Only with practicals!" Rose shouted pointing her finger inches away from his face.

Scorpius grabbed her finger and gave it a taunting wiggle.

"And the essays too, Rosie Dear," Scorpius mocked her with a pout.

Noah was rapidly munching his toast with anticipation. Albus rested his head in his hands, mumbling to himself.

"We'll see when we get our results Monday, won't we Blondie?" Rose hissed at him.

Scorpius dropped her finger and let his eyes meet Rose's hard, blazing look.

"Yes, we'll see the fact that I scored better."

"Malfoy! Potter! I hope your finished breakfast, I want warm ups at the Pitch in five!"

"That's our summons!" Albus perked up, immediately jumping from the bench.

"We'll finish this later, Weasley," Scorpius growled.

Their eyes didn't dare to break contact, with a puff of her chest and a hard tone that would make Albus shiver, Rose gave her response.

"We'll see about that, Malfoy."

"Come on," Albus sighed, grabbing the back of Scorpius' collar and dragging him away.

"Rosie Dear and Blondie," Noah repeated, tasting the words on his tongue, "that was an interesting year."

"It was last year," Rose snorted.

"I know," Noah smirked, "it was interesting, look at how so much is changing-"

"Shove it up your ass."

No less than half an hour later Rose and Noah found themselves in the Slytherin stands, surrounded by screaming Slytherin students. The representation of house proud varied, there were some with simply a scarf and a flag, and others were adorned with face paint, head to toe in emerald and silver. There was even a group of first years who were sharing a giant snake costume. Rose and Noah belonged in the category of just simply wearing a scarf and unenthusiastically waving a tiny green flag.

"Why are we even here sometimes?" Noah asked Rose with a small laugh.

"Because we love the two idiots," Rose scoffed, unimpressed with being in a crowded stand of screaming people.

"Can you repeat that?" Noah asked slyly with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Not like that," Rose growled, "Albus is my cousin, and Scorpius, is well, Scorpius!"

"You called him Scorpius."

"You and Albus call him Scorpius all the time," Rose rolled her eyes, "I was bound to have my slip ups."

"Whatever you call him, Rose Weasley admitted she loves Sco-"

"That's not what I meant N-"

"Welcome to the first Quidditch game of the Hogwart's season!" The announcer bellowed out.

Melissa Jordan, easily one of the most hilarious people in Hogwarts, was the favourite commentator, she even gave up her spot on the Quidditch team to announce the games she was previously playing in. Apparently her father was also a commentator during his Hogwart's days, and much like him, she was extremely biased towards Gryffindor.

"We start with the best team at Hogwarts-"

"Jordan-"

"Right. We welcome Gryffindor!"

The stand of gold and red roared with cheers. Many were jumping up and down, chanting their friends' names who were on the team. Some Slytherins booed, making sure it was under their breath as to not cause a scene.

"We have Captain Zayn Hubbard! And his two other Chasers, Alicia McElliot and Steven County!"

The Gryffindor Quidditch team started to trickle out from their entrance.

"We have our Beaters, Quinta Coles, and possibly the smallest Beater Hogwarts has ever seen, Lily Potter!"

Many people were shocked with the youngest Potter, Lily, with her short height and very skinny build, had enough oomph behind her to make a great Beater. Her temper was as fiery as her hair. Albus would often comment under his breath on how Lily might even give Rose a run for her galleons.

"We have our Keeper, replacing his cousin Louis, Hugo Weasley!"

"Excuse the fuck me!" Rose yelled out, standing up arubtly.

Sure enough, her little brother swaggered onto the field, wearing the Keeper's gear.

"Son of a fucking-"

Noah clamped his hand over Rose's mouth.

"And our seeker, also replacing a cousin, Dominque Weasley!"

Rose instantly slumped down in her seat, looking much more relaxed.

"We've got this in the bag," she laughed, watching her cousin make her way onto the field.

"She isn't bad Rose-"

"She's just not better," Rose told him.

It wasn't the fact that Dominque was a bad seeker, it was just Rose's firm belief that it was Albus and James that hogged the quidditch talent bucket.

"So you think Scorpius is-"

Rose thanked Melissa Jordans for the interruption.

"Now, we have our Slytherins," Jordan rushed her words.

"We have Captain and Chaser, Paisley Zabini!"

"Freaking gorgeous bitch," Rose grumbled.

Paisley's face did not have any signs of a smile, her face was stone cold, her grip on her broom turned her knuckles white. But it wasn't out of fear, she held a certain fire in her brown eyes that caused Steven County to flinch.

"Her accompanying Chasers, Albus Potter and Kuan Yin!"

Rose made sure to do a rather ear-aching scream, clapping wildly as she watched Albus walk onto the pitch.

"Beaters, Asher Goyle and Fletcher Quin!"

The two boys strutted onto the pitch and Rose scoffed at the two. They swung their bats carelessly and were shooting poisoned smiles at their opponents.

"There goes a 'clean game,'" Noah commented dryly.

Rose gave a short nod in response.

"Keeper Greg Meyers!"

Rose was seriously questioning her house, as Greg Meyers made his way onto the pitch, waving at whoever in the stands like he was some sort of to-die-for prince.

"Is everyone in Slytherin so bloody arrogant," Rose scoffed, leaning back into her seat.

"Don't forget prideful," Noah added with a sly smile.

"I'm allowed to be proud of myself-"

Noah laughed at her as the seeker was brought to the Pitch.

"Seeker Scorpius Malfoy!"

Noah gave a rather enthusiastic clap, while Rose gave three crispy claps and a face of boredom. When Noah looked over at her he chuckled quietly, before bringing his attention back to the Quidditch Pitch. The two teams arranged themselves in a circle, with Paisley Zabini and Zayn Hubbard locking eyes, fixing each other a menacing glare.

"I want a nice clean game," Madam Drews growled at the two teams, her eyes particularly trained at the Slytherins.

"From _both_ parties," she added with a scowl at Gryffindor.

"Clean game," Rose muttered, "get your head out of your ass, it's Quidditch."

Noah chuckled lightly, his eyes fixated to the Quidditch Pitch. The moment the whistle brushed the lips of Madam Drews, all hell broke loose. The second the Quaffle was not longer in her possession, the Chasers began an all-out, no-mercy, want-to-look-away-but-can't, bloodbath. Hugo took his post at the hoops, watching the quaffle intensely. With the way he licked his lips Rose thought for a moment he may eat the ball if he ever got it, but his darkened blue eyes gave Rose the impression it was a different kind of hunger that stirred within her brother.

"The game is off with an exciting start, as always when these two rivals are concerned!"

Chasers were immediately colliding with each other. Push after shove, shove after barge and barge afterand absolutely steamrolling in the case of Steven County. When Paisley rammed into him at full force, the unfortunate third year Gryffindor was thrown from his broom and onto the grass.

"FOUL!" Melissa Jordan roared intensely

Madam Drews blew her whistle.

"Penalty shot for Gryffindor, on account of Blatching!"

Paisley muttered angrily to herself as Steven County was being helped off the pitch.

Meyers gave Alicia a wicked smirk as she took the quaffle. Her eyes shifted from post to post, with one hard look at Greg she made her decision. She immediately raced towards Greg, who was guarding the middle post. He observed the look in her eyes, and was caught off-guard, Alicia was solely focused on the centre hoop. His mind went into over-drive, she had no lean in her grip or body posture, her eye sight and body were solely centred on the middle hoop.

"If she's feinting it's going to be bloody good acting," Melissa snorted at the crowd.

In a speed that appeared to Rose as almost slow-motion, Alicia swung the quaffle with extreme force, body reeling forward after the quaffle left her grip. Rose scoffed as Noah muttered a cuss word. Meyers may have caught the quaffle, but Alicia's strength behind her throw caused a rather interesting reaction. The quaffle also collided with the Slytherin Keeper's gut, and sent him barrelling behind, through the centre hoop, and he proceeded to fall to the ground.

"Un-fucking believable!" Rose screeched.

"Bloody awesome throw by Alicia McElliot!"

The Gryffindor Chaser grinned from ear to ear as Slytherins sent their "boos" while the Gryffindors roared with delight. For the Slytherins, the game just further snowballed downhill. Collision between players was strictly kept minimal after the foul involving Paisley Zabini and Steven County. Paisley let a few new Slytherin strategies take their time on stage, but the Gryffindor team would bite back just as hard.

"This is fucked," Rose grumbled as Noah picked his nails.

"What happened to not being interested in quidditch?" He asked her with another dry drawl.

"Because this match is annoying," Rose huffed out.

"Weasley spotted the snitch, her and Malfoy are neck-and-neck!" Jordan's voice nearly deafened the entire audience.

"Catch that bloody snitch!" Rose screamed, flinging her body towards the railings.

"Bloody hell," Noah groaned, watching Rose rage on like a Weasley.

Not that it was a bad thing, being a Wealsey, Noah internally added. It was just that she inherited the trait of having every emotion on display. This often separated her from other members of her house, Noah pondered the fact it was the main reason for her lack-of bonding with Slytherin females, her fire held a different head and often never mixed well with this. His train of thought was cut off from Rose's loud racket.

"You stupid useless Malfoy, HOW HARD IS IT TO CATCH A FUCKING FLYING BALL!"

"Professor McGonagle would like to remind several students to watch their language, she is deducting points-"

Noah laughed, watching Rose continuously yell at Scorpius.

Scorpius had his teeth grinding together, his body leaned so far forward Rose thought he might actually fall off of his broom. Not that she cared, but Slytherin needs to crush this game, assert their dominance for the rest of the season.

"Both Seekers hands outstretched! Who will catch the golden snitch?"

"Come on Blondie!" Rose screamed at him, "Stop being a talentless arse and actually DO SOMETHING!"

Scorpius face hardened. Noah found it interesting that the most effective cheerleader was the one currently insulting the life out of the poor boy.

"How bloody hard is-"

"Scorpius Malfoy catches the snitch, securing 150 points for Slytherin, giving them victory this match!"

The Gryffindors did not shy away with their cusses, boos and other expressions of frustration. Meanwhile, the Slytherins cheered loudly, deafening the poor Ravenclaw stand with their screams, shouts and victory cries.

"Professor McGonagle would like to remind students to try and keep their snogging off of the Quidditch Pitch."

When Rose looked at the Quidditch Pitch her mouth dropped and her eyes popped. Paisley Zabini had plucked up some courage, and was currently giving Albus Potter a furious, heated snog. Rose's chest tightened uncomfortably as she also noticed that her cousin held no reservations in returning his captain's affections.

"Should we go to pitch Noah," Rose asked tentatively as she turned to face her friend.

His face was stone cold, she could see his exaggerated chest movements and his fist clenched, even with his arms folded.

"Perhaps Albus needs his private time with Zabini," Noah's voice nearly growled.

This took Rose aback, Noah was always dry. Noah was always drawling and being sarcastic and blunt.

"I suppose your right," Rose scrunched her nose, "I really don't like seeing that."

Noah decided he wanted to skip the Slytherin Victory party, favouring working on an essay that Rose is sure doesn't exist.

"Rose you need to go," Noah demanded, hastily speeding down the hallway, keeping as much distance as possible between him and Rose.

"Typical Slytherin face mask," Rose scoffed trying to catch up, "I know what you're feeling Noah."

He quickly spun on his heel, giving Rose a heated glare, his jaw clenched.

"Weasley you need reminding what house you are in and what colours are on your uniform," he spat, "Just because you can't assume this said "Slytherin face mask," does not give you the right to badger others who can."

Rose smirked at him, her eyes glinted mischievously.

"So you're saying that you are in fact cut by this event, and that you indeed are assuming this mask?"

Noah laughed darkly, "Just keep out of it."

Those were his final words before continuing his journey to the library to work on a non-existent essay. Rose's mind was racing, she was truly in trouble, and needed to speak with him immediately.

"Malfoy!" Her booming voice bounced between the walls of the Slytherin Quidditch Team's room.

"You're a bit late Weasley I just got out of the shower," Scorpius teased as he exited the bathroom in nothing but a towel.

Rose scrunched her nose and writhed her body in disgust.

"That wasn't my concern," she said, still eyeing Scorpius' body cautiously, "we have bigger fish to fry."

"Albus and Zabini have already left for the victory party," Scorpius told her, "and I am bloody confused."

"So am I," Rose sighed.

"I mean I'm here naked, with only a towel, in front of a woman, and she isn't all over me," Scorpius tapped his chin, frowning intensely.

"Perhaps because your body doesn't interest me," Rose snarled.

"So Noah's gayness HAS rubbed off-"

"Why must you poke fun at his sexuality," Rose scolded.

"Noah knows I only joke around, it's my weird way of showing him that I accept it, and you can't deny that he also finds it funny," Scorpius grinned as he watched Rose's face contort into a jaw clench as a scowl.

This means that he won, so Rose decided to change the subject.

"For your information I am as straight as parchment, you're just unappealing-"

"I beg to differ!"

"We are getting off topic!" Rose snapped at him, "Albus is off snogging Zabini! He's not snogging Noah!"

"Unless he's blind-"

"Why aren't you taking this seriously!" Rose shouted at him.

"Why are you taking this _way_ too seriously?" Scorpius asked her in response, slightly irate.

"Because I care about Noah, he is my best friend and I love him," Rose growled, "and I want him to be happy, and at the moment he is miserable!"

Scorpius' eyes widened slightly his mouth opening in slight shock. Rose gave him a hard shove that sent him back a few paces.

"He deserves more than what he's getting," Rose added, her hardened eyes still staring straight into his, "and I love Albus to pieces, and somebody assured me that he and Noah shared romantic affections for one another."

"Like I said, Albus admitted it to me," Scorpius quietly said to her.

Rose frowned slightly at the softness of his voice.

"Did you ever fancy Noah?"

Rose gave him a hard slap at the back of his head.

"No you bloody git!" Rose yelled angrily.

"You said you love him!" Scorpius defended rubbing his head.

"Yes I do!" Rose balled her fists at her side, "Like I love Albus! Like I love my brother! You're such a drama-seeking shit and-"

"How the fuck was I meant to-"

"By not being an idiot!"

A small cough stopped the shouting match, for a few moments all that was heard was the echoes of the argument still bouncing off the walls. Rose and Scorpius turned to the door, with an amused and dishevelled Albus leaning against the door frame. His eyebrows were raised and his smirk could've been seen from the moon.

"For your information Rose did once have a small fancy for Noah-"

"In second year!" Rose hotly defended.

"Hah!"

"That's where the jokes end," Albus stated as he started to walk towards the two.

Rose and Scorpius turned to each other gulped, their eyes agreeing that this situation wasn't good, with the way Albus approached them, the two would be fried.

"For the record I do not appreciate people meddling in with my love life," Albus commented, glaring at the two of them, "and Scorpius what I told you was confidential, I thought I could trust you not to tell. Hell, I thought the two of you hated each other, so I was certain you wouldn't tell Rose-"

"Why wouldn't I be allowed to know?" Rose asked him, annoyed.

"Because you would wrap me in bubble wrap to make sure nobody could ever poke at the subject of my sexuality, I wanted room to grow into it before letting a mother bloody coddle me," Albus hissed.

Scorpius and Rose looked at each other nervously. After another few moments of silence Albus let out a saddened sigh.

"When you said Noah was miserable Rose," Albus whispered, "does that mean that he…"

Albus didn't dare to finish his sentence, but Rose understood and gave him a nod.

"And I've been snogging my Quidditch Captain all night," Albus groaned.

"She is hot," Scorpius justified.

Rose gave him another hard slap on the back of his head.

 **AN: Yes it's been a while I'm sorry! I had heaps of uni stuff to do and I even had my first practicum at a school! An entire school week in a classroom with students being taller than me and thinking that I was younger than I was. Tip: If you want respect from Year 8s, don't write on the whiteboard in permanent marker, you lose all authority.**


End file.
